Jeff Hiller: Environmental issues to grow in importance
Sustainable Furniture Council president looks to future
Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, April 27, 2009
HIGH POINT —
 Jeff Hiller |
As the organization nears its three-year mark, Hiller has been there every step, from the creation of standards to a green credentialing program for individuals.
The SFC has 350 members and hopes to have 700 members by the end of 2009. In responses to a series of questions by Furniture/Today's Heath E. Combs, Hiller told why he believes sustainability issues will grow more important for the industry.
Q: President Obama's administration recently declared that carbon dioxide and several industrial emissions threaten the planet, likely laying the groundwork to cap carbon emissions, something expected to cost billions in the private and public sectors. In the midst of an economic decline, can we afford another cost of doing business?
A: I agree that it appears a carbon cap is imminent and may be necessary. The acceleration of global warming is proceeding at (such a pace) that it's much worse than we thought.
The polar ice caps are melting faster, droughts are more widespread and more severe, all indicators are predicting much worse consequences much sooner. According to the scientific consensus, we need to reduce carbon emissions by 70% from 1992 levels by the year 2050; current forecasts are that they will at minimum double. Voluntary measures have been grossly inadequate, and ... carbon may need to be legislated to produce the necessary results....
The burden will be felt by all industries, not just furniture, and by all companies equally within each industry....
Q: Is this an ideal time to be taking the helm as president of the Sustainable Furnishings Council? Why?
A: There's no time like the present. The SFC has done a great job of getting the movement off the ground in home furnishings.
SFC was able to bring together key constituents from the environmental side with one of the founders of the (U.S. Green Building Council, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and ranking staff of the World Wildlife Fund and Rainforest Alliance to inform our actions, together with industry players from raw materials suppliers and manufacturers to retailers and designers.
Now it is a matter of rapidly expanding as quickly as possible. Toward that end, we are focusing on developing active partnerships with the Top 25 in all areas of the business.
Top 5 retailer Williams-Sonoma joining a couple of weeks ago was a big step as was adding its director of sustainability to our board of directors. Same with the director of sustainability for Stanley Furniture, a Top 15 manufacturer.
We are also ramping up our educational offerings, agreeing to curriculum co-development programs with major academic institutions and rolling out the industry's first certified sustainability training program. We have much to do, but are well on the way.
Q: Has the economy affected interest in green goods? What do you hear from members' companies and your board?
A: The economy has diminished buying interest in all segments, no more or less for green than any other. What I can say with tremendous confidence is that interest has never been higher, and is increasing every day.
We have been averaging more than 20 new members a month since the start of the year, and have more than three times as many booked speaking engagements vs. the same time last year.
You also see it in the number of civic green expos in virtually every major market, in the creation of green hotels, the mandate for fuel-efficient vehicles and many other areas outside of the furniture industry. It remains a hot topic, and much like the U.S. administration, I believe that when the turn comes, it is going to be highly influenced by the green movement.
The SFC has obviously done of a good job of attracting members. Several members have gone on to gain Exemplary status ... through the organization. Others, like Groovystuff, are rolling out (green) programs this market, continuing to build on their story.
Q: How important is it to get members gaining Exemplary status through the SFC?
A: Our model is based as closely as possible on the highly successful LEED model in commercial building. They have a wide gate for base membership, inviting all who are sincerely interested, then reserve Exemplary levels for differentiating truly stellar current performance.
The idea is to get companies on the escalator, then give them significant milestones to shoot for in improving their performance. This is precisely our goal, and it is proceeding beautifully.
Importantly, FSC, or Forest Stewardship Council, certification is not a competitive program. In fact, our highest level of Exemplary status includes a component that is based on FSC-certification in wood products. FSC is an independent, third-party certifier of various performance measures. Like LEED, we are not independent certifiers.
Instead, what we promote is a specific standard of performance excellence in a wide variety of categories including but not limited to wood, and rely on outside certifiers such as FSC to ensure that applicants are actually performing against those marks. It is our hope and expectation that our members like Groovystuff will go through the process of independent certification so that they can achieve Exemplary status from our organization.
Q: Can you outline what the issues are for the furniture industry regarding climate change? What can the SFC have an impact on?
A: The home furnishings industry faces the same issues as all industries, the rapid and dramatic reduction in carbon emissions in all of its operations. It also faces a more specific challenge in controlled sourcing of wood.
Deforestation accounts for about 25% of the carbon problem, both in the release of the carbon stored in wood and the elimination of the trees that are cut down and not replaced as carbon sinks, or holding tanks.
Furniture is the third-biggest user of wood behind commercial buildings and paper products, so it is incumbent upon us to make sure that all of our wood is legally logged from sources that are sustainably managed. We have a very direct contribution to be made in that area that other industries cannot.
Q: You said recently that green issues will explode in 2011 when the worldwide economic crisis has settled. Why so sure?
A: Three reasons. As you reference, the worldwide economy hopefully will have settled by then ... so it no longer dominates every headline as it necessarily does right now.
Next, the U.S. administration has clearly, publicly and repeatedly stated that this is the window in which they will be pushing the green economy as a major agenda point, ensuring attention and funding. These two factors will create a ready market for green products.
The match on the powder keg will be the release of the fifth UN/IPCC Assessment on Climate Change. It will no longer be possible to sugar-coat the results, and even the most diehard skeptics will be scrambling to go green. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether it will happen through market will or legislation, but it will happen.
Smart companies are those that will spend the next two years getting ready for the inevitable so they are ready to capitalize on these events and start making the dramatic difference that will be required. It is a moral imperative that will swiftly become a business imperative.
You did not want to be the guy selling buggies when the Model T was introduced in 1908, or ice boxes in 1915 when refrigerators arrived, or aerosol cans for that matter when CFC's were progressively phased out in the late '70s. It's time for everyone to get on board.
Q: Will you guys be conducting another survey? Tell us something you found out with the first.
A: Yes, we will be launching the second wave of our consumer study in June 2009, exactly one year after the first. Going forward, we expect to field them twice annually, to give us a more precise trend line to track various important considerations from the consumer perspective.
A couple of things stood out from the first wave. There appeared to be a ready market for green home furnishings with 30% projected trial interest, as long as they liked the style and the price was no more than about 10% above the norm, true for acceptance of any mainstream product innovation.
They are already buying green products in virtually all categories except home furnishings; the only hang-up has been the lack of product availability.
The other thing that caught our attention is that there was no significant difference in age or income for those who cared enough to be doing something. It was an attitude, not a demographic, with 75% of all consumers expressing at least some interest in the subject.
There will always be a handful of skeptics on one end and a handful of zealots on the other, but it is this wide swath of people in the middle that has the most promise for swift and effective change.
